Johnny Juzang disappoints in debut

Undrafted free agent Johnny Juzang made his Summer League debut for the Utah Jazz on Saturday night and did not live up to the hype. Of course, one game in July is not nearly enough to base an NBA career on, but Juzang looked downright putrid in his first game.

The stat line was quite telling, in case you missed the game. Juzang played for well over 20 minutes and was 1/6 from the floor. He did not hit a three at all, and that was the sole reason why Utah gave him a chance. In fact, he was listed as one of the best players in his rookie class purely based on his shooting.

Johnny Juzang simply needs to hit shots

My main concern with Juzang coming out of the gate was that he would lack all the confidence required to make it on the big stage. Well, shooting six shots certainly requires a sense of self, and the shots weren’t falling.

Part of the reason Juzang could not find the basket was because he was faced with almost constant double teams by the Atlanta Hawks. This means there would be an open man, but he only managed to tally one assist, so he was not looking for a shooter across the floor at all.

While he largely played a poor game, his physicality was a welcome sight. He fought for four rebounds and a block and met more players at the rim than Kofi Cockburn did, so that was a happy surprise.

I do not want to overreact to one game, but Juzang needs his shots to fall. It’s a good thing that he was trigger-happy all night, and hopefully, as summer play continues he starts to hit those shots, but in his small showing thus far I was hoping for some electrifying results. Maybe too much was put on him, but if he wants to play in the NBA he needs to make shots, or at least better choices with the ball.